Running Craziness

So.... I last blogged on Thursday. On Friday I ate Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Saturday I ate a piece of chocolate raspberry cake.

Onto Sunday... My plan was to wake up early and run before it got too hot. The alarm went off at 7:30, but I did not rise or shine. My thought was to run after I finished working - BIG MISTAKE. I worked at National Ice Cream Day at Woodside Creamery. I sat outside in the heat all day and sweated. I stayed hydrated, but of course I needed to have some ice cream. Chocolate chip peanut butter - BANGIN'. I finished working at 4:00. Packed my exhibit table and headed home. I got dresssed and was ready to run. I mapped out a 10 mile course throughout the city of Newark and headed to my starting point. I felt good in the beginning. I felt good until about mile 4 and then it all went down hill from there. I had to pee the entire run. I peed myself. I told you all in the beginning that I was going to be honest in this blog. So there it is. HONESTY. I peed myself. Moving on. I was so hot and exhausted. I was in desperate need of water. Around mile 4 I was on the University of Delaware campus. As an alum, I'm familiar with the campus and I knew there was a fountain near Kirkbride Hall. I walked over, splashed my face and I felt some relief. I told myself "you can finish." Boy was I wrong. Not even a half mile after that I was searching for water. This time I found a hose hookup on the side of a UD building (don't arrest me, please.) I turned it on and got some water. Keep moving I told myself. I was feeling a little better, but it was HOT! I got to about an hour and two minutes and I just stopped. I couldn't do it anymore. I was too hot and thirsty and I knew I needed to listen to my body. I walked the rest of the way to my car. I finished my run feeling discouraged. The entire run was one mental beat down. I kept telling myself I was stupid for signing up for a marathon. "You can't even run 10 miles - how are you going to run 26.2?"

Monday: My plan was to run a few miles on Monday evening, but it rained, so I headed to the gym. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and did some weight training and ab work.

Tuesday: REDEMPTION! On Tuesday I headed to the Nature Center at White Clay Creek with the intention to run 8 miles. The course is all in the shade (besides for one part on the road). The humidity wasn't bad that day and I was feeling GREAT! It was a nice feeling after Sunday's crappy outing. I was booking it at one point. I love trail running. My 8 miles ended up being about 9 miles and I finished in 1:21. My runner's high returned!!

Today: This morning I did Body Pump, but let's talk about an interesting running experience. Two of the guys at work run with this group called the Hockessin Hash House Harriers running group (it's an international group). It was interesting. I was prepared for this group because I did a little research on the internet. I knew that when I showed up people would be drinking beer before the run (gross) and they all have really profane, offensive names. I will not repeat them. Look them up online if you're really curious. So we waited for the run to begin. We all had to form a circle and the newbies aka virgins were called to the middle. We had to introduce ourselves. My name was "Just Kim" and I had to tell the group who invited me. After we did the intros the leaders of the group talked about today's trail. Each week a new "hasher" lays a trail using flour. There are different signs in flour out on the course. Some indicate you're going the right way others tell you you're on a false trail. We started behind the host's house which was all wooded. The hasher term for this is "squiggy" (I think... maybe swiggy - It's something that rhymes with jiggy because I started singing gettin' swiggy with it - or whatever the name is). So we started running. It wasn't bad at first. I followed the leaders and we had to backtrack just a few times. We were going through neighborhoods and then out into a big field. Then the fun began. It was time to cross the White Clay Creek. So I knew if I walked across the creek with my shoes on I was going to pay for it later. HAHA. RIGHT. So I crossed the creek. I took my shoes off like the little priss I am. I get to the other side and realize we have to walk down the creek. At that point I was like whatever, I'm walking down the creek in my shoes. So the water was about knee deep and it was pretty refreshing. I finally got to area where we needed to get out of the creek. Onto another big field and then out onto a road. We were on the road for a bit and the road was marked with a BN. That means beer is near. I had gatorade. After a bit of a break the hashers kept on. We walked up a huge hill in the woods (no trail) just walking through bushes and sticker bushes. Then down the hill. Then coincidentally we ended up at one of the trails I ran on yesterday. We ran on that a bit and then crossed another creek. This time the water was thigh deep (at least on me). Keep running (in wet shoes - yay blisters!). So we finally finished about an hour and ten minutes later. We didn't run anymore than 5 miles. But there were a lot of nasty hills so overall it was fun and good opportunity to get some hill training in. After the run everyone gathered again and ate some snacks and people drank more beer (see the beer trend). Then they all started singing songs (of course they were profane). After this silliness everyone was invited to eat dinner. The outing was interesting. I'm not sure I dig all the cursing and weird songs, but overall it was fun. The course was cool because it was extreme cross country and it was an adventure!

Looking ahead... tomorrow I'm going to RPM class in the morning, Friday I will probably take a day off or run a few miles. Saturday I'm going for 10 miles and Sunday will definitely be an off day.

That's all.

Peace. Love. Run.